[Updated For 2019] How To Advertise On Facebook

Facebook advertising is all the rage right now for both large and small businesses and rightfully so! As Gary Vaynerchuk so eloquently said, "when you are David and you are playing against Goliath, you have to do David Tactics. And our little slingshot with a rock right now is Facebook ads."

You obviously understand the power of being able to reach 1.9+ billion Facebook users through the paid Facebook ads system. However, the problem I see is all of the fake gurus out there selling "how to advertise on Facebook" courses that are terrible.

This post will cover one approach to running successful Facebook ads. It is definitely not the only way to run successful ads, nor is this a definitive guide.

Introduction to Facebook Advertising

In this post, I will be documenting the processes that I've created and the processes that are still evolving to this day. Having spent over $100,000 in the Facebook ads platform since 2013, I'm not a big fish in this arena. But, I'm also not a noob here and have been very profitable with the advertising investments that I have made on Facebook.

There are so many people trying to sell you courses and systems on how to run Facebook ads, and I feel like there are too many sharks in the water. Just like many of you, I've bought into many Facebook advertising courses. I even know the creators of a few. I have found that most of them are rubbish and that is one of the biggest reasons as to why this guide is being created.

I'm tired of fake gurus selling you overpriced Facebook courses that simply don't deliver. Most of these courses are full of regurgitated opinions, not real-world experience. With that said, the question remains.

Do you need a full on Facebook advertising course? The honest answer is a resounding yes.

Remember, this post is just a crash course and does not include any of the more advanced 'customer retargeting' or messenger ads or video ad tactics that are CRUSHING IT right now!This guide will get you started, but the Facebook Ad IQ Course will provideyou with everything you need to become a true professional Facebook advertiser.

Now that you are aware this is simply just a crash course and not a full-oncourse for you to master Facebook advertising, there is one more thing you should be aware of before we go much further. Facebook is always changing the look and feel of their advertising interface and what you see in the videos below will look entirely different when you log into your own Facebook ad account.

Why is that you ask? Because I simply don't have the time or desire to update each video after every change that occurs. It would be an endless uphill battle! With that said, the core concepts including the main ideas and functionality are still the same. Those aspects haven’t changed. However, you should still be willing to adapt and persevere on your end!

The following are some easy to follow and simply written step-by-step instructions on how to advertise on Facebook.

Part 1 : Facebook Ads & Interruption Marketing

Facebook advertising is a form of interruption advertising; this means that users are browsing their news feed when your ad appears. The end user is looking at pictures, videos, and updates from their friends and family. They are not actively searching for you, your product, or your services.

Interruption marketing works wonders for some products and services, but not as well for others. For example, if you are a 24/7 emergency plumber in Reno, Nevada, then interruption marketing may not be for you. Your best customers may wake up to a flooded bathroom and they will go to Google to specifically search for a plumber that can help them. They will not go to Facebook and scroll their news feed hoping an ad for a plumber shows up.

Does that make sense?

If you invented a new golf accessory that helps golfers hit the ball straighter and longer, then this is an example in which interruption marketing can work wonders.Golfers are passionate, and because of this, they spend money on their hobby and are easy to target! Opportunity abounds on Facebook!

However, your first goal is to figure out if Facebook is even the best option for you and your business. Just because everyone is touting Facebook as the best deal on the greatest traffic, you may find that it is not the best fit for your business!

The second big idea here are the types of ads you can run on Facebook. They have some advertising options that are terrible investments, and this video covers the three types of Facebook ads and which one you want to focus on.

Part 2: Your Advertising Goals

Before launching into the Facebook advertising platform or really any other social media marketing strategy; you need to have clear goals. There are many opinions about the 'best' goals, but if you ask ten different advertisers what is best you could get ten different answers.

When you start running campaigns, you will want to test the different campaign types to be sure that they will be the best fit for your particular business. Every niche is different; every product is different. What works for one business may not work and be as successful for another. But Facebook definitely wants to give you the results you desire!

Conversion Campaigns

For me, when I'm spending money on advertising, I want to see a Return On Investment (ROI) fast!This means I have two main goals in mind with my Facebook advertising campaigns:

#1 - Leads #2 - Customers

In Facebook's advertising system both of these are known as conversions. So, I mainly run conversion focused campaigns to fit my primary advertising goals.

For other businesses that want more leads and more customers, I recommend conversion goals. However, you will also find that there is a clear and powerful argument for engagement as a goal for some businesses as well.

Engagement Campaigns

If brand awareness and brand exposure are priorities or if your product has a 'viral marketing' nature, then an engagement based ad campaign can get your ad to go viral a lot faster than a conversion focused ad campaign.

My problem with engagement goals is that it becomes more difficult to calculate your ROI. However, it is not impossible, and we will cover this in-depth later.

One friend of mine has found that engagement wins over conversions for his T-shirt sales. Advertisements for new movies are another example where engagement is the primary goal. They want people to watch the trailer and then like and share the post as they get excited about the movie!

We will talk about how to test which goal is best for your business, later. The general rule of thumb is that Facebook has a campaign type that correlates to your goals. So, establishing your advertising goals now will help you choose the right campaign.

Part 3: Research

At this point, you are going to need to roll up your sleeves and get to work.Most people either skip the research phase or do a terrible and rushed job with research.It is in the research phase that you will either find gold or go home empty-handed.I like to use a gold panning analogy here.

If you want to set out and find gold, the first thing you want to do is research where others have found gold before and then you will want to look there first. Simple, right? You would also be wise to research a bit about geology and understanding how gold forms, so you are better equipped and can identify the areas on the river that have a higher likelihood of bearing gold.

Researching Your Niche

The first area of research is in your niche and who your best possible customer is.If you already have a product, a business, or are offering a service, then you have probably already chosen your niche.

I chased money in the wrong niches for years. I thought that following the money was my passion, but it resulted in frustration. I jumped from opportunity to opportunity and never made any progress. It wasn't until I committed to a niche I love that things started to click. I then gained the patience and perseverance that was needed to grow my business.

Creating a Customer Avatar

Once you know your niche, you have to come up with your Customer Avatar. Your customer avatar is a symbol that represents your perfect customer.

For our golf example, your customer avatar may be Charles. He is a 57-year-old executive for a Fortune 5000 company. He earns $130,000 per year and he plays golf at least once per week. The goal is to bring your perfect customer to life, so you have a clear picture of 'who' you are advertising to.

If you would like to view the videos that teach how to do this, you can play them in the playlist below.

If you'd prefer to listen to this content from the video above, play it or download it from the podcast episode below.

Once you know your niche and your customer avatar, it is time to get inside the Facebook ads research tools.

Understanding Facebook Ads Research Tools

The most powerful Facebook advertising research tool is their Audience Insights tool. This video shows you how to find the 'interests' of your customer avatar. You want to create a list of 30 interests that are relevant to your customer avatar. You will then use these when you set up the ad targeting later.

In the above video, I show an 'affinity score' area that is no longer available; an example of how Facebook is always changing things! This video below explains what to do now that the affinity score is gone.

At this point, you should know your niche, have your customer avatar, and have a list of 30 interests you plan to target. With that done, you can then move on to part four of the Facebook advertising process.

Part 4: Tracking - Installing Your Facebook Tracking Pixel

To get the most out of your Facebook advertising efforts, you need to be able to track user behavior on your site. Facebook has a tracking pixel that allows you to make this happen.

A tracking pixel is a small snippet of code that you add to every page on your website. This snippet of code loads on every page view and sends Facebook data about that user session. If the visitor is also a Facebook user, then you are able to show this user-specific ads when they return to Facebook.

If this user clicked through your ad, the tracking pixel lets Facebook know if they became a customer or a lead. The Facebook tracking pixel is not optional. You must have this in place to become successful with Facebook advertising.

Below you will find three videos that go into detail about how to setup the Facebook tracking pixel on your site. This first video is the most recent configuration I'm using for tracking my Facebook ad performance.

This above video shows how to setup the pixel in WordPress with Thrive themes.

The next two videos are still relevant but are not my preferred method to setup Facebook tracking because they use two pixels.

The second is event tracking whereas above we use the custom conversions to track the events. The below videos show how to setup the Facebook tracking pixels on Clickfunnels, also. If you are on Clickfunnels and want to know where to put the code, the bottom videos show you how.

This video explains more about what the pixel is and where to get it.

After you have your pixel from the video above, the next video below will show you how to put the pixel on your site.

Even if you are in the research phase right now and are not planning on running Facebook ads for a while, I still recommend you get your pixel installed as soon as possible. The data that your Facebook tracking pixel accumulates can be used for months in the future, so it is best to get this in place immediately.

Part 5: Facebook Audiences

Facebook gives you many options when it comes to creating and targeting audiences. From your website visitors to your email subscribers and from people who engage with your fan page posts to people who like your competitors, you will also find that you can even create audiences that look like your best customers.

Having this ability to create, include, and exclude audiences is part of what makes Facebook ads work so well. The first place to focus is on creating custom audiences based on your email list and customer list.

This video shows you how:

If you don't have a customer list or email list, that is ok; you will build one and can follow these steps when you have 1000 leads or customers.If you do have these lists, get them set up now so you can exclude your current customers and leads from your ads.

You don't want to pay to display ads to your customers when they have already purchased, right? Of course not. So, you can exclude this audience from your ad set when you create it later!

Creating Lookalike Audiences

After you have uploaded your customer and leads list to create a custom audience, the next step is to create lookalike audiences for each. This video shows you how to create these lookalike audiences.

Lookalike audiences allow you to leverage the data Facebook has on every user to your advantage. When you setup a lookalike audience, Facebook will go and find the most similar Facebook users for you.

For example, if you have a list of 1000 customers who bought your golf accessory in the USA, then Facebook can create a new audience of 2 million active users who are most like your current customers. Targeting these look-alike audiences on Facebook is a great way to find new customers!

Creating Retargeting Audiences

Finally, you can create retargeting audiences on Facebook for visitors on your website. This can be as simple as creating an audience for every visitor to your website. Or, you can get more complex and target visitors who reach certain pages but don't reach other pages on your site.

This video explains how to create these kinds of audiences based on your tracking pixel data.

Keep in mind that this is not a complete list of every type of audience you can create; there are many more options.

These are just some of the most common ones to help you understand the immense power of the Facebook advertising system, fast!

Creating an Engagement Audience

One custom audience I have not made a video of yet but am using more now is an engagement audience. I have created a custom audience of people who have engaged with my posts on my fan page, and then I exclude this audience from my ad. I exclude them so that users who comment or like on my ad, don't keep seeing that ad!

I'll put a video up about this custom audience type when I have time to create and publish it.

Part 6: Choosing Your Facebook Campaign Type

The campaign type you choose for your ad should match the goal you established in part 2 of this guide. If your main goal is conversions, whether it be leads or customers, then you should choose a conversion based goal.

If your goal is to get a higher click-through rate and get users to read a press release or other piece of content, then you should use a traffic campaign.If you want to help a video go viral, then use an engagement based campaign.

Here is a video where I cover the options in greater detail for you:

If you'd prefer to listen to this content from the video above, play it or download it from the podcast episode below.

For me, as of this writing, I'm only running conversion based campaigns. I usually focus the conversion goal on leads, and I do this through the custom conversion’s functionality. However, there is some controversy in this area.

Some teachers are saying you need to start with engagements and move to conversions. The theory behind this is you need to season the pixel or mature the pixel first. Then, you run a conversion campaign. This is not true.

When you create a new ad campaign, Facebook's machine learning system resets. All the data you generate in an engagement campaign is lost when you set up your new campaign and ad set. Now, to go beyond me simply telling you how it is, I want to link you to a resource where the engineers who created this system can better explain it:

Watch that video and at around 20 minutes in, they get deep into what I'm explaining here. About 25 minutes in, Facebook's engineer states past data doesn't influence future results.

I recommend you watch that full video because it has great information in it and it debunks the theory that some of the 'fake gurus' are spreading. It also proves that running an engagement campaign will not help your future campaigns.

If you want Facebook's machine learning to optimize your ad campaigns for you, then you need to run a conversion based campaign from the start; even if you have zero pixel or conversion data.

This video shows you exactly how to setup a campaign in Facebook's Ad's Manager (Updated for 2019!).

Now, Facebook's most recent ad manager as of this writing, (December 2018 for the 2019 update) looks exactly like the video above.

But Facebook will surely change the look again in the future...

How will you handle that? Well... Check out this video to help you understand how to deal with these changes.

If you'd prefer to listen to this content from the video above, then you can play it or download it from the podcast episode below.

Facebook will definitely be changing the look more in the future!

Part 7: Setting up Your Facebook Ad Set: Targeting & Budget

The ad set level in Facebook is like the engine room on a cruise ship; this is the area that powers your entire Facebook advertising campaign. When working in the ad set and after you publish your ad and it is live, you do not want to change the ad set in any way.

Any changes to the ad set will cause the ad set and all ads under it to re-enter the Facebook auction. This means two things. First, you will reset all the machine learning, losing all conversion optimization. Second, your ad set will be re-evaluated against other advertisers targeting this audience, and this means you can get a much higher cost per click, per display, and cost per conversion.

So, consider this your warning. Don't 'fiddle' with your ad set once you launch your campaign!

Ok, let's get into the fun stuff!

Remember your list of 30 interests you researched earlier? This is where those interests go, and there are two schools of thought about how to set this up.

Option #1 is to put all 30 in one ad set and let Facebook's machine learning choose the best prospects for you. I am not a fan of this method because it gives 100% of control to Facebook.

The other option is to split up the interests to put one interest per ad set... This is my preferred way to run campaigns.

This video shows the specifics on 'how to' execute this strategy with the newest Facebook Ads Manager as it looks entering 2019

With this approach, you set each ad set at $5 per day for testing. This video explains this option in greater detail from a theory standpoint... So above is the 'techie how-to' and below is the 'mental theory' behind my approach.

If you'd prefer to listen to this content from the video above, play it or download it from the podcast episode below.

To execute this strategy, you set up one ad set and ad, then duplicate the ad sets. You split test the interests against each other at the ad set level.

This video shows how to do this.

I have tested both options and have found both to be successful. If you have the time to split out each interest and a desire to know which interests perform better, then option #2 is for you. However, if you want to get your ads up and running fast and don't have much time, then option #1 is for you.

Now, there is an advanced targeting technique that can help some businesses when more than one interest is required.

You are able to use an 'and' identifier that will create an audience based on the overlap of 2 or more interests. For example, if you were selling a high-end shaving cream, then you may want to target people who like 'Dollar Shave Club' and 'Axe Body Spray. 'This tool allows you to only display your ads to people who like both.

The advanced targeting tool is not for everyone, but I have three great examples in that above video that should help you understand whether or not this tool can help your business.

Part 8: Your Advertisement

The copy on your advertisement may be the most important component of a successful Facebook campaign. The targeting, or 'who' you show your ad to competes for that "most important" spot. Honestly, you must have both components dialed in the right to have a successful ad campaign.

The right advertisement won't work on the wrong audience. For example, if your golf accessory ad shows only to people who like tennis and not golf, then it will most likely flop. On the other hand, if you get the targeting right but have a terrible ad that does not compel your target audience to take action, then you will again experience a flop.

You also must be sure your ads are within Facebook's advertising policies; this is not optional.If you create ads for prohibited topics or you are using prohibited language in your advertising campaign, then your account can get shut down without warning.

Creating Compelling Facebook Ads

Teaching you the "ins and outs" of copy-writing is beyond the scope of this post. But I do have a few tools and references to help you learn to write compelling ads that work on Facebook, fast!

First, let's study the ads that have worked wonders for some of the world's marketing greats.

The biggest thing to notice here is how common it is to have long text above the image. This helps with your relevance score which is Facebook's rating of how 'good' your ad is. It also helps get users excited about your offer before they leave Facebook.

You may be thinking, "but Miles, my niche is different than what you showed."Very true. I get it. My business is different too. Here is a video that covers how to spy on your competitors' advertisements to find even more ads to model.

If you'd prefer to listen to this content from the video above, play it or download it from the podcast episode below.

At this point, you are ready to set up your Facebook ads. Now, inside Facebook's ads manager, the ad creation process is step 3. Step 1 is the campaign and step 2 is the ad set level, which we covered. This video below walks you through all three steps to create a campaign, ad set, and ad.

If you already followed along in the above videos and have a campaign and ad set running, then you can jump to 13 minutes in, and you will go straight to where the ad creation takes place.

Then, to test one ad against another to see which performs better, you want to split test.

This video shows you how to setup a split test at the ad level.

Note: if you are running the $5 ad set method from above with dozens of ad sets, then you should wait to run split tests at the ad level until you have found which ad sets and interests convert!

Part 9: Key Performance Indicators

Once you launch your ads, you need to understand how to analyze the results of the ad. For example, how do you know if an ad set is performing well or not? How do you know when to turn off an ad set or when to scale an ad set? How do you know what your break-even point is on your ads, or when you reach profitability?

These are the most important questions and the answer lies in knowing your numbers. These numbers are your Key Performance Indicators or 'KPIs. 'Now, the math you need to figure out your KPIs is incredibly simple; I'm talking 2nd-grade math, here!

This video explains the two numbers you must know and watch, every day.

If you'd prefer to listen to this content from the video above, play it or download it from the podcast episode below.

This video below goes deeper into how to calculate these numbers from within your funnel.

One important concept is that your ad performance is only the front of your funnel. You should have a funnel that has back-end offerings, too.

These back-end offers are not calculated in the ROI of your ad spend, and this means they are pure profit for you. You will want to calculate this value also, which is the lifetime value of your customer.

Part 10: Scaling Your Facebook Advertising Campaign

At this phase, you are running ads on Facebook and you are profitable, or you have been able to break-even. Your KPIs show which ad sets are driving new customers and are generating profit. You now want to scale these campaigns to spend more and bring more customers.

The challenge is that Facebook can give you different results when you increase your budget too fast. There are two main methods for scaling your ads. These methods include duplicating out your ad sets or increasing your budget.

This video covers both approaches and gives you the parameters for how to execute each.

Slow and consistent increases in budgets in the 10% per day range has worked well for me. If you are running $5 ad sets, you can increase by $5 per day to scale. Continue to watch your KPIs close and scale back any increases that push you outside of your KPIs.

Facebook Retargeting

For most businesses, running retargeting ads on Facebook is the best way to get a fast boost in the number of leads and customers from the least amount of ad spend; this is the 'low hanging fruit' of Facebook advertising, for sure.

This video shows you exactly how to run retargeting ads on Facebook.

A final note: only make one change to your budget on each ad set per day. If you make several changes in one day, you can over-optimize your ad set and cause your KPIs to go out of whack. Additionally, habituate the time of day you will check your ads and make any changes to your budget, and then show up every day at that time and make any necessary changes. You should then stay out of the ad’s manager until the next day.

It is so addictive to keep hitting refresh on your ads manager to check the results, but this is not productive. You need to allow Facebook's machine learning time to find the right target audience for your ads!

Part 11: Testing

I have covered split testing in several areas already, but testing deserves its own section. First of all, you should always be testing at least one item in your ad campaign and one item on your funnel. For example, you may be testing different interests at the ad set level in Facebook.

In this situation, you may also want to be testing the headline on your landing page, too. Optimizing your funnel for conversions is an important step towards success and one that was not covered here. With that said, you want to limit your testing to only one item at a time on Facebook and on your funnel; this is so you have only one variable in each system allowing you to see what changes create results.

For testing, you can also test different traffic types against each other.

For example, when I run Facebook PPC ads to my website traffic that comes from Google, I get leads for 40% cheaper.

If you'd prefer to listen to this content from the video above, play it or download it from the podcast episode below.

I uncovered this through testing.

If you are having trouble generating leads or acquiring customers within KPIs, then you should test a two-step ad campaign.

If you'd prefer to listen to this content from the video above, play it or download it from the podcast episode below.

Finally, you may like a few baseline numbers to shoot for, so you can tell what requires more optimization. Your ads should be receiving at least a 3% click-through rate and should have a relevance score of at least 7. If you aren't hitting those numbers, your ad copy needs work!

If your landing page is an opt-in page, you should be experiencing at least a 25% conversion rate. If you aren't converting 1 in 4 visitors to a lead, then your landing page needs work. Your sales page should be converting at least 2% of visitors into customers, and if you aren't hitting that number, you then need to fix your sales copy or video sales letter.

The goal in testing is to identify the 'leakage' in your funnel and campaign and then run tests to fix that issue. After doing so, you can then move on to the next most problematic area you can find and do the same.This is how you continue to optimize your website, your funnel, and your ads to generate better ROI over time for your business.

Bonus Content About Facebook Advertising

If you loved the content and want more from me about Facebook advertising, then here is a presentation I gave at a conference about how to fast track your success with Facebook Pay Per Click marketing.

Facebook advertising has changed my business for the better and I hope that this post helps you. The goal was to give you a comprehensive resource for free that can get you going in the right direction with your Facebook ads.

If you have any questions for me, feel free to leave me a comment below.

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Miles is a full time internet marketer who sells information products and a niche membership program with his wife, Melanie. Together they have created a lifestyle business that allows them true location independence and this blog where you get to see behind the scenes and see how they have built their online business from scratch.

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61 comments

Robert Lewis says May 26, 2017

Dude! This blog post is incredible. Very nice summation of the culmination of your work to date. Can't wait to delve deeper into it. Thanks!

I recommend moving off Wix to WordPress and then following along with the DIY funnel series. Wix is going to limit your abilities to create an effective funnel. See this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHBams8lQTI

Miles, you're either an EXTREMELY generous person...or have some Dr. Evil plan to take over the Internet Marketing world! Absolutely stellar content. I've invested over $5000.00 in Facebook Advertising courses that aren't as detailed and comprehensive as your material. Thanks so much for all you do for Entrepreneurs.

My whole plan is to walk my talk and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that staying focused on giving value creates better long-term results than selling rubbish with 'copywriting hacks', scarcity and fake urgency. Worked for us once in our first business... Working pretty darn well here for this second time. 😀

Holy &#%^! Is this how you take down a 74/100 SEO Difficulty Keyword ranking!?!?! 🙂 REALLY excited to have all of this freaking content amazingly organized and easy to jump in where I am at! Turning the internet to 11 Miles B!

Definitely my goal with this power post. I guess we will see if I'm able to rank for my target keyword phrase... I think my site is still a long way off, authority-wise... But there is a TON of content here, so I gave it my all, for sure! 😀

Plus, now I have a 'target' to point people to when I get the "I don't know where to start" comments on YouTube about Facebook advertising... So there are multiple layers of benefit for me and a good chance the post will get picked up and shared since it is so comprehensive.

After watching your tutorials, I gathered 30+ interests from the Audience Insights tool. I went into the Power Editor to setup some ad-sets, but many of the interests I dug deep to find, don't have a big enough audience to run as a stand alone interest (you suggested at least 300,000, right?)

Some only had 10-15k. Some had a little more, some had a little less. So would it be better to pile all these smaller interests into one ad-set until I reach the 300k audience? I wouldn't know which ad-set is converting best, though.

With the $5/day starting point, you are good to run to much smaller interests.... Rule of thumb is that you can run $10/day for every 10,000 in an audience... Starting with $5 makes the cut for just about all audiences, just keep that 'ceiling' in mind when you scale.

I'm still not there yet in terms of ready to advertise on FB. Still learning the ropes. But when I am, this post is going to be my resource--"The One Post To Rule Them All!" Thanks for creating this, Miles.

Miles, You have some great insights. I have B2B programs (going for $1500 each). Three questions. Would this work for B2B for such price points? (and also membership site?) My programs are globally applicable to Companies - How do I go into specifics? Just as a rough estimate ( and if the answer to the first question is yes), how much should be a reasonable ad spent? I do have a funnel offering free information.

I think the big question is... Is Facebook the easiest way to find/target your perfect target customer? ...Compared to Linked In or Google? It doesn't work for every niche, but it can. I know of many B2B products selling in the $1k - $2k range via FB ads.

Testing is the ultimate answer.

You need to find the customer avatar... Figure out who you are trying to reach. The audience insights tool is powerful for that.

A reasonable ad spend is the amount you make on a sale. So if you earn $1500 per sale, you can spend up to $1500 and effectively break even... So I'd test up to that point.

It can take more effort and ad spend up front to get going but once you find an ad/audience that works, you can make up any initial losses, fast... And reach profitability.

So glad I found this post as I'm sure you can help me with my question..

Just about to start Facebook Ad's... And all the research I have been looking at shows that the best size image for a facebook add is 1200x1200, (and I see in Feb2017 they introduced 1200x1650)... so WHY WHY WHY can't I find this option in Ad's Manager???

For a single image in Ad's manager the image size is set at 1200 x 628 and I can't find anywhere the option of 1200 x 1200 except in carousel..

Is there still an option for a single image ad (with text and link above) in either 1200 x 1200 OR 1200 x 1650?? And if so how do I find the option!?

Miles! You're gonna be soo proud because I worked out the answer to my question!!! You have to create a post on your FB page and then boost it - phewf - I was struggling there! And I can see my pre-selected audiences which I set in Ad manager, and also my FB Pixel when I boost so all good there..

But now.. I have another question.. Last one I promise..

I see that some companies when they advertise like this (1200x1200 in the feed with link above) have a shortened and changed URL to the actual landing URL - what is this all about? What's the reason here (I'm sure there is one) ... and how do you do this?

It depends... Honestly, I prefer content marketing for a straight affiliate marketing business. It takes a little more time to build the authority in the eyes of the search engines, but once you have that authority status, you can receive traffic for years and years to come!

For affiliate marketing to work with Facebook ads, you need to have a really good opt-in giveaway and generally, it works better with higher ticket products that can generate $100+ in commissions when sold.

Hey Miles! I've been following your videos for some time now and I can honestly say they have been by far the best compared to others, including courses I have bought in the past. Huge gratitude for your time and efforts!

I have got 30 interests to target after going into the insights tool as you suggest. I cant decide whether to set up adsets for each interest group and split test at the adset level, or to group them together and split test at the advert level. My reason being that some of the groups are small - less than 5,000. What do you suggest is the target audience size for one adset? My thinking is to group some of the smaller interests together and run these against the larger ones. Would that work?

Finally, am I right that I would run just 1 advert across all the adsets until I have enough data to confirm statistical significance before then running image variations to those adsets that have delivered good results? I would then run copy variations...

Group the smaller interests together and run them... 30k - 50k is good because it can handle a $30/day - $50/day budget. Bigger interests test separately. Yes, run one ad across all of them to keep the variable focused on the audience, not the ad! Great job taking action!!!

Was building adsets in the ads manager today and discovered the small checkbox below audience targeting that says 'expand interests when it may increase conversions at a lower cost per conversion' - I'd be very interested to know what you think?

I'm assuming it's expensive and not very specific - it made my potential reach way bigger than without which seemed a bit weird!

Might be useful to others too as it took me a while to figure out why my reach numbers were so off, until I saw it was auto-checked!

It is worth a test... But if you are wanting to really identify which interests are driving sales and which aren't that will totally skew the data. If you want to run one big adset and let FB's machine learning do more work for you, this can work... But you gotta test it because it could easily work for one niche and not another.

Hi Miles! I've really learned a lot from your videos and I recently just discovered this blog posts which really put everything into perspective for me. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and I wish you more success in the future. One day I'll make it big too and I'mma give you a huge shoutout. Count on it!

Miles, I have been an avid reader of your content for a few months now. I find you engaging and very informative. Have a question for you, what do you recommend for folks, like me, who have had their FB Ads account shut down due to STUPID/Uneducated mistakes from the past? I would really like to advertise on FB, THE CORRECT WAY! but don't see a way to make this a reality. Thanks for your insight and I look forward to your response. Eric

First off, I'd work to find a partner and try to setup a new Facebook account. Then I'd set up a business account at both and get as many ad accounts setup as possible.... But don't put your credit card in all of them. When they ban they ban all accounts with that credit card... This would be my approach

Hey Miles. Thanks first and foremost for all the content you put out there.

I have 1 campaign in FB that is yielding leads like crazy. I've got almost 200 leads for little over $1 per lead. the relevancy is 10 on all of them. The opt-in rate of the capture page where my ads are leading to have an optin rate of 60% and the other one 76%. So I'm happy with that.

The big issue is that I haven't got ANY front sales at all. I am promoting an info-product as an affiliate. after the opt in people go to a bridge page which in turn sends people to the VSL.

I think the breakdown might be in my bridge page message which may not compel people to watch the VSL and thus I'm not converting anyone.

The question is should I keep this running until I get to 1000 clicks to evaluate and start tweaking ? So far I have 374 link clicks.

I'm building a relationship with my audience with email follow up. It has been only 2 weeks so i think it is probably to premature for me to judge.

In terms of people getting to the affiliate offer VSL, at least 130 unique clicks are hitting that page based on the analytics in the back office of the affiliate system I am promoting.

The affiliate offer I think is great but maybe my target market needs to be educated on the concept of "high ticket affiliate marketing". I am promoting in the Spanish market which is still at very infant stages when it comes to affiliate/internet marketing.

Perhaps if I make a video or video series explaining the concept. That might help people understand the power of leveraging affiliate offers and how they can leverage the model.

I'm currently running 2 ad sets that are giving me .75 and .65 cents leads so I will keep running these 2 ad sets until they hit 500 clicks each and continue the email follow up and then I will either a) test other interests or b) tweak my bridge page or c) make my own vsl and see if I can make the offer more palatable.

Worst thing that can happen to me is end up with a list of 1200 or so subscribers after all (considering I'm getting .65 to .75 cent leads).

Your Welcome and I am going deeper in your videos. And I have a questions about pixels. You have two videos one is personal convertion pixel that you can add 40 or 50 and also have a second video of the tracking codes (lead, viewcontent, etc.), is not the same thing? What is the difference? Or you use the personal conversion for particular events? Or the question could be When you use the personal pixel conversion? Thanks in advance

I have a relevance score of "8" for my fb Ads but there isn't any opt-in at all through my landing page after running the ads for about a week (my AOV is $45 and is reaching soon with a $5 Ads budget/day). My guts feel tell me that my landing page is an issue. But i am confused over what i should do now...

1) Should i wait further until my advertising budget reaches my AOV before i amend my landing page? 2) Should i create another landing page for split test purpose even before reaching breakeven point?

How can i make any changes (be it planting pixels on my split test landing page or setting up new custom conversions or changing ad image) to the same ad set without affecting my costs per conversion or relevance score? Or should i simply create another new ad set?

By the way, I am doing away with the "thank-you page" in my sales funnel...So I have an ad driving traffic to my landing page where my leads will be prompted to enter their emails and the next thing they will see is my sales video/letter (an affiliate link).

Is it a wise move to skip the thank-you page? I don't know but i am trying out things here...Would appreciate if you can share your insights with us all here...Thank you!

This is one of the best Facebook advertising guides I have seen. I'm now using this as my go-to reference.

I have a question: I have created a Facebook page for a website of mine but it has no likes. Do you think I should spend a small amount on page promotion to increase likes? I already have the tracking pixel setup on the site and so far it has logged 4k events, so I guess I could use this data to create custom audiences (if people have already visited the site then hopefully they will have no problem liking it, in theory).

I don't think the page like numbers will help your ultimate goal of running ads to your funnel... Could be worth it to get a little experience or to test... Some people like this move, so I get it. Just not my style. I would definitely set up a re-targeting audience for the audience you have based on your pixel data already! My #1 goal is to get opt ins from Facebook, so all my energy goes in that direction!

HI. I have watched some of your videos spread on youtube. I think there are awsome ! Im new at this thing of adds on facebook. I wonder if you think this kind of advertising is god for what I do. Im a singer and I sing on the dinner of weddings on Mexico. My service is 45 to 60 minutes of show. Do you think this kind of strategies (that you expose on your brilliant masterclasses) are right for me? Regards.

Are you mainly focused in one area? I would make sure you have a highly optimized wordpress site that is ranking well on Google for your best keywords first... So when people search for the service you provide, your site shows up!

Hey Miles, thank you for putting up all the videos! Very helpful stuff 🙂

On manual bidding, if I don't see 'results' based on my own bid, can I change the bid amount when the campaign is still active? How to adjust the bid amount without getting being 'thrown out' of the FB bidding system?

What about testing out different Ads images? By duplicating ads with different images for ads split testing, do you take into account the congruency with those images you have in your opt-in page ? Thank you!

Hi Miles, it's great to find a person like you who is really willing to help others in their venture. My question to you is I have been handling my friend's trading company's Facebook where I simply make a post with the pictures of the product and price where audience here in Nepal mostly ask for the price and give out their contact numbers. The company's website is not well-made so I don't direct the audience towards the website. So would engagement be my priority or conversion? Please make it clear and also please send your golden suggestions about how can I better promote my business. Thanks for the valuable tips until now. I wish you all the good wishes for your work and life. -Salil (from Nepal)

The Facebook post itself is being able to bring in the paid customers. They simply comment their numbers and the company does the dealing through the phone. Sadly we don't have online payment gateway here so people don't pay through online mediums. So, I guess engagement must be my priority while making a campaign, right? Also, I still have lists of phone number who can be my potential client. Can I send them Ads just by their contact numbers by creating the custom audience?

Great post Miles!!! Love all your content. I have a question: I´m currently running an e-commerce, so I choose "conversions" as my campaign objective. However I´m not sure if the ad set goal should be View Content / Add to Cart or Purchase! Which one do you recommend? My pixel is pretty new by the way

Hey Miles! Superb post. My plan is to follow it word by word, to the best of my abilities. I'm looking for the recommended 30 interests, but for the life of me, I can't get more than half of that. What do you suggest?! thx 🙂

Hi Miles, do you know how I can check on Facebook to see if the pixel has been fired off or not? Here is the use case: I advertise on FB for my book on Kindle. I want to Retarget everyone who has seen my Kindle book page. However, Amazon doesn't let me place an FB pixel. So, what I've done is this: - made a specific landing page with the FB pixel on it - immediately after the pixel Javascript, I've added this little script:

So, when I send people to this landingpage via my FB Ads, the pixel should be fired off and immediately they are redirected to my book page on Kindle, right?

However, now, I'd like to check on Facebook if this works and if the pixel is indeed fired off. I can't use the Pixel Helper extension in Chrome, obviously, because the page is immediately redirected to Kindle. That's why I'd like to check on Facebook, but I don't know how. Hopefully, you do.

In addition to this: is it possible to see on Facebook who has been on the redirected landing page?